Zulu Dawn:Col. Durnford: Sergeant, you're to ride back to Natal. When you see the Bishop tell him, that is, tell his daughter, that I was obliged to remain here with my infantry. Now go. God go with you. Sgt. Maj. Kambula: I leave God Jesus with you.

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Isandlwana Widow - Esther Bishop

I've come across a couple of newspaper snippets which mention the unhappy story of an Isandlwana widow being arrested for the murder of her infant child in Colchester in 1881:

Aldershot & Sandhurst Gazette Nov 26 1881

"A woman named Esther Bishop, against whom a coroner's jury had returned a verdict of wilful murder, has been arrested at Colchester, charged with the murder of her female infant, whose body was discovered in a copper at the residence of Colonel Black, where the prisoner had been employed as cook. Since the commission of the crime Bishop had been very I'll and unable to be removed for examination before the magistrates, but she will be brought up in the course of a day or two. Bishop had been receiving 12s. a week from the Patriotic Fund, her husband, a soldier, having fallen in the battle of Isandula"

Although there was a Driver Charles Bishop N/5 Bty RA killed at Isandlwana, the mention of Colonel Black (who I understand commanded the 1st Btn 24th/SWB at Colchester from c.April 1881) makes it more likely that Esther Bishop's late husband was either 2-24/1550 Pte Henry Bishop 2/24th or 25B/154 Pte John Bishop 1/24th.

As ever, if anyone has any further information I'd be interested to hear.

"Esther Bishop, a 35-year-old soldier's widow who had been supporting herself by working as a cook, was charged with the murder of her illegitimate newborn daughter at her employer's home at Colchester, England. The body of the child had been found in a laundry copper that was partially filled with water, and the post-mortem examination strongly suggested that the baby had been born alive and died from drowning, both of which were crucial elements in attempting to meet the stringent tests for proof of life according to the law that were a requirement for infanticide convictions. During her trial at the Essex Winter Assizes in January 1882, the jury eventually decided that there was insufficient medico-legal evidence that the baby had been born alive to convict Bishop of either murder or manslaughter, but she was found guilty of concealment of birth

It had a happier ending. Esther married Joseph Edward Eleazer Mungeam (another soldier of the 24th) in April 1883 in Salford They had two more children and moved to Kent. Esther died in Strood in 1937.

The 2nd/24th provided men to No. 2 Squadron, Mounted Infantry, rather than to No. 1 Squadron, Mounted Infantry. In which case Private Mungeam would have been at Nyezane rather than elsewhere on 22nd January 1879.